I couldn't help but find it odd that Linus' parents would allow him to spend the night alone in a pumpkin patch, shivering and asleep until the early morning hours, and leave it to Lucy to trek out to bring him home.
The parents were pretty much non-existent, even after Rerun was born. In later years, Lucy character was virtually Rerun's mother.
I know that it is a fantasy world, but I can't help but notice these things from a 21st century POV.
You're reading too much into this. Just enjoy the show.
Your chains are still mine, you belong to me! - The Phantom Of The Opera
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Just wait until the Thanksgiving Special, where the Kids are allowed to mess around in the Kitchen making a Thanksgiving Meal.
shareTV shows and movies about kids having been doing this for decades and decades. The kids are super smart, act like adults, solve super problems, defeat corporate megalomaniacs....this is all nothing new.
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Indeed it is a fantasy world and inspired by Schulz's own childhood, which must have taken place in a rather secure atmosphere in which kids were left alone a lot, played outside on their own (don't say risky things couldn't happen in those days BTW but parents were much more casual about their offspring).
Also, this is a universe about children's point of view, and children frequently create and organize their own little world around their friends, games, fantasies, holidays, classes and so on. I know I have. Adults surround them but sometimes they're just supporting characters, specially if they're working (still, Charlie's mother is at home and we don't see much of her. Probably busy keeping the house in order !)
And finally, the fact some of the characters become elder brothers or sisters (like Charlie and Lucy) give them a sense of responsability towards the youngest ones, that make the grown-ups parts even less essential. Peppermint Patty, though she's not related to her, is also a sort of sisterly figure to Marcie. I remember in the early phases of the script, when there were no older and younger children and all of them were just toddlers, adults were much more present (some even talked !)
" You ain't running this place, Bert, WILLIAMS is!" Sgt Harris
Well, what do you expect from parents who can only say WHAA-WAAAA-WA-WA-WA-WA-WA to their kids?
shareParents don't exist in the strip or the cartoons. That is, besides 'vague beings somewhere out there that sound like trumpets'.
I always figured they left the kids to their own devices - after all, this was the safe 1960s and their parents might be hippies - and went to some adult Halloween party, trusting that the other parents would take care of the kids that have a party at their house, and so on. You know how these social gatherings and events go in the sixties.
They couldn't have predicted how insane Linus was or that he mixed up Christmas, Santa and Halloween to create the Great Pumpkin myth. They couldn't have known Linus would just shiver late into the night alone in the pumpkin patch, when he could've gone to a fun party with all the other kids.
Plus, it was common to make your older siblings responsible for the younger ones and look after them. What kind of a family would it be if this couldn't be done? It teaches the kids responsibility and makes them more compassionate and better people, so I'd argue they were the OPPOSITE of negligent, they were making both Linus and Lucy stronger and better people.
If you are still confused, watch 'Ferris Bueller's Day Off', where Ferris basically transforms a weakling like Cameron into a tough Viking-type Iron-willed Man.
The adults were "voiced" by a trombone, not trumpets.
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